Whether the cause was the credit crisis, the lingering effects of the “Great Recession,” or just a natural shift in the market for legal services from sellers to buyers, law students and law firms have seen a long-standing equilibrium for achieving success disrupted, and the two sides are still looking for ways to restore it. For many years before 2008, the equilibrium was well settled and based on the institutionalized—and constrained—path to success that law firms presented. Now, however, that path diverges. And law firms are seeking new and innovative ways to sell their product (what is still a very meaningful and fulfilling career path) to a marketplace made up of top students who have many different options at many different stages of their careers. So, how will this balance be restored? Perhaps it will be as simple as both sides recognizing that success for either a student or a firm is not defined as a single concept but rather the ability to take advantage of the significant shifts in the legal marketplace and an openness to doing so. In defining success, lawyers would do well to remember the best answer to most law school questions: It depends.
In hindsight (and with the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia) it all seemed so simple “back in the day.” There was a relatively small group of firms that the market for legal services viewed as “elite” or “highly prestigious,” and among those firms competition was limited. Firms in this group knew the client base of the other firms in the group and, for the most part, each was able to coexist without infringing on the others’ business. Quantitative metrics and ranking tables were not needed in a world in which everyone knew each other and there was more than sufficient work to go around. This was a time before English firms merged with U.S. firms, before the rise of the 3,000-plus lawyer law firm, and before it was an accepted norm that groups of law firm partners could move from one firm to another.
